From owner-freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Wed Sep 28 07:54:52 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-x11@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8D309C0053C for ; Wed, 28 Sep 2016 07:54:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bennett@sdf.org) Received: from sdf.lonestar.org (mx.sdf.org [192.94.73.20]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "ol.sdf.org", Issuer "ol.sdf.org" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 742B1EFF for ; Wed, 28 Sep 2016 07:54:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bennett@sdf.org) Received: from sdf.org (IDENT:bennett@otaku.freeshell.org [192.94.73.9]) by sdf.lonestar.org (8.15.2/8.14.5) with ESMTPS id u8S7sf69025648 (using TLSv1.2 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256 bits) verified NO) for ; Wed, 28 Sep 2016 07:54:41 GMT Received: (from bennett@localhost) by sdf.org (8.15.2/8.12.8/Submit) id u8S7sfc3013045 for freebsd-x11@freebsd.org; Wed, 28 Sep 2016 02:54:41 -0500 (CDT) From: Scott Bennett Message-Id: <201609280754.u8S7sfc3013045@sdf.org> Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2016 02:54:41 -0500 To: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Subject: vt(4) driver problems on old Radeon cards User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 6/20/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: X11 on FreeBSD -- maintaining and support List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2016 07:54:52 -0000 I recently changed from one ancient computer to another, slightly less ancient computer. The older one had a Nvidia card that's no longer supported by the current driver, but still worked with a separately supported, older version of the driver. The less old one has two Radeon HD 3870x2 cards hooked together with a Crossfire cable and uses the KMS driver modules. The change has caused me considerable grief, as well as disappointment. Some of the grief is because xscreensaver apparently has a bug that causes it to fail when the "blank screen" is activated on this hardware. (I did send a bug report to the author's email address per the instructions on his web site, but have thus far received no response whatsoever. I'll wait a few more days before attempting to file it on the FreeBSD bugzilla under x11 stuff.) The disappointment is that, although the Radeon HD 3870x2 cards supposedly support ATI Streams programs, which AMD apparently no longer does, they don't support OpenCL. I don't know what they lack for OpenCL. Sigh. Other grief comes, possibly, from the vt(4) console driver. The sc(4) driver results in the loss of a console upon either a) shutdown of Xorg or b) an attempted virtual terminal switch away from Xorg. That has long been documented and was the impetus for development of the vt(4) driver. However, on this system, vt(4) has the same problem. Further, the system's power requirement, as well as its heat output, appears to increase by 20% - 40% when using vt(4) compared to sc(4). I haven't proved to my own satisfaction that this seeming relationship is accurate, but should be able to do so upon the next reboot. A search of the archive for this list turned up a few postings within the last month or two by people reporting higher power consumption when using vt(4), but no one seemed to know why it was happening. The higher temperatures show up in the CPU, not the GPU(s), according to those postings. I see very high CPU temperatures with vt(4), but don't recall what the temperatures were when using the sc(4) driver, and I don't how to access the GPU temperature sensors if any such exist. (I don't know whether they do.) If anyone knows of a utility to display GPU temperatures, please let me know. Also, if anyone has more information on the above described vt(4) problems, I would appreciate whatever he/she can tell me. Thanks in advance! Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett at sdf.org *xor* bennett at freeshell.org * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good * * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments * * -- a standing army." * * -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790 * **********************************************************************